


Like The Rising Sun

by Stars_Under_Skin



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Drama, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 04:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16779673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stars_Under_Skin/pseuds/Stars_Under_Skin
Summary: Nanami Suoh lifts her chin, meets her brother, and pretends it doesn't hurt to swallow.





	Like The Rising Sun

Nanami considers everything she could say to her father, running her fingers over ideas, turning them over in her hands. She contemplates each one carefully, examining each one for imperfections, but eventually she discards them all. There is nothing she could say to him that would make him understand the betrayal that’s been burning its way down to her bones since she was old enough to know how to feel it.

Behind her father’s desk, there are two photos: one of a family smiling happily in the bright sunlight, Paris sprawling behind them, waiting for them to tip backwards into the city and be consumed; the other, Nanami’s most recent school photo, her smile mocking her from behind the glass.

She stares at the two photos and tries not to read into the difference between the two.

Nanami watches herself sit in the chair on the other side of the desk, sees her father shifting his feet under his desk – sees through him, into the snakes writhing in his belly, and feels only anger so strong she can taste it on her tongue. She watches as Grandmother, still as stone besides her father, tries to suffocate them both again. Through the glass, Nanami feels her hatred settling into her lungs like smoke.

The grandfather clock keeps ticking in the corner, happily oblivious to the tension.

Through the glass of her picture frame, she watches the door swing open behind the Nanami sitting in the chair. That Nanami’s eyes blink once, her fingers twitch on her knees, and then she’s standing as her father rushes around the desk. Unable to hear through the thunderstorm rising in her ears, she keeps her eyes on that stupid school picture of hers until Grandmother rises, steady as the sun rising.

Feeling too heavy for this body, for this reality, Nanami turns and looks her brother in the eye over her father’s shoulder.

Not yet fourteen, he stands taller than she ever will, and wears their father’s smile like it costs him nothing, like it doesn’t cut him down to the bone to bear his teeth to her. She looks at him look at her, and her anger rises again, unbidden, like a tidal wave in her throat. He sees this, and his gaze flitters away, to the only other woman who carries as much of the same anger as Nanami does.

Grandmother, short in stature, carries herself like royalty. She is locked and loaded on her new target, and Nanami watches, wordless, as she narrows her focus onto him.

René Tamaki Richard de Granaine smiles like the sun, outshines the light coming through the windows. Nanami lifts her chin, meets her brother, and pretends it doesn’t hurt to swallow.

**Author's Note:**

> It's taken me forever to get to this point! I'm very excited about this! Let me know what you think


End file.
